Use of Creative Activities in Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation

Abstract

Objective: A survey was performed to study the use of creativity in the field of physiotherapy and rehabilitation. There has been littleresearch on this topic in Turkey and only a few studies are reported to have used music therapy for children. Therefore, the presentstudy aimed to perform a similar survey as conducted in Sweden.Methods: In this study, we sent a survey to physiotherapists in İstanbul via email. Recorded data included sociodemographic characteristics(gender, age, and education) of the physiotherapists; where and how long they had been working; the specialties of thephysicians that they work with; whether they continued training/education after graduation, and if so how did they maintain theirstudies; whether/how often they involve creative activities in the treatment sessions; which activities they prefer; whether they get anynegative reaction from patients or colleagues while applying the creative activities; and whether they apply any treatment methodother than conventional methods.Results: According to the results of the study, 59% of the physiotherapists benefit from using creative activities during their sessions.While 21% of them use handcrafts, 19% make use of computer games, 8% take advantage of music/theater activities, 6% use exercisepainting, and 2% use practice gardening.Conclusion: There has been no previous study on this topic in Turkey, this study provides insight into existing practices and may encouragefurther use of creative methods in therapy. Further studies should expand on the experience of physiotherapists concerningthe benefits of creative activities.